Who are genuine Christ followers?

18 Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He *said to them, “ Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. 21 Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him. (Matthew 4:18-22 NASB)

It seems like just the other day, but I actually it was in late 2004 through 2005 and into 2006 that the old Slice of Laodicea blog was going full tilt, Jim Bublitz, Ken Silva and Ingrid were taking it as well as giving it from those who hated to hear the truth that there actually is a dividing line between Orthodox Christianity and everything else that calls itself Christian, but isn’t, that is, apostasy in one form or another. I came into the battle seeking the truth. I was desperate because my church was being sucked into the Purpose Driven paradigm and no one there would listen to my warnings. Both Jim and Ken were a great help to me. In any case, it was during all of that that we witnessed a group of individuals declare war on the Orthodox Christianity we defended, refusing to be called “Christians” any longer, preferring to be called “Christ followers.” I always looked at that with humor because that seemed so “self-righteous” and “pretentious” and if we look carefully at what these people were trying to say by that, they were driving themselves even further into a “works righteousness” religion. Let’s look at our Lord’s own words in his calling people to follow Him.

I placed Matthew 4:18-22 from the NASB at the top of this post. Please read it carefully. Here is this passage from the NA28 Greek text:

In v19 our Lord calls Simon Peter and Andrew to follow Him (δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου) or, literally, “come after me.” The word δεῦτε means “to come hither.” The promise is that if they will δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου Jesus will ποιήσω ὑμᾶς ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων or, “I will make you fisherman of men.” The call is miraculous. It is from God and it strikes the heart of these men causing the intent He purposed for them, which we see in v20, “οἱ δὲ εὐθέως ἀφέντες τὰ δίκτυα ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ.” This literally says, “The ones but immediately having left the nets followed him.” The word translated here as “followed” is ἠκολούθησαν the aorist, indicative, active form of ἀκολουθέω or akoloutheō. This grammar structure is a gold mine for us and we must stop here my brethren to dig for eternal treasure. The aorist, indicative, active form tells us that, yes, these men left their nets and followed Jesus, but, no, the power to do so was not from their free will but, instead, came through God’s grace to move them. This is no different than when people turn in repentance to believe the Gospel even though what they are hearing is the offense of the Cross and to most people it is a repulsive, insulting thing to be called a sinner in need of a Saviour. However, when God’s grace kicks in, miracles happen and these fishermen left their nets and became Jesus followers. This has nothing to do with these men seeking to do good works to earn salvation. This has nothing to do with trying to please Jesus. This is turning to do God’s will because God’s will was for them to do so. In one of my Grammatical Lexicons for Aorist Indicative Active verbs it uses as an example 1 John 2:27, which reads, “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” The bold part is the Aorist Indicative Active verb. So you see, it is action that we do as believers, but is by the grace of God that we do it. What about James and John in vv21-22?

In v21 Jesus called them and then in v22 we have, “οἱ δὲ εὐθέως ἀφέντες τὸ πλοῖον καὶ τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ.” Again, we have the very same verb, ἠκολούθησαν. Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen who left there nets, turned and followed Jesus when He called them to do so. The verb grammar structure tells us that this was action done by them in the power of God according to His will.

All true followers of Jesus Christ follow Him in salvation. To come to Christ means true conversion, commitment, and change. As the calling of the Apostles illustrated this, there were also examples of those who failed this test as in the rich man (Matthew 19:21-22) and the man who supposedly had to bury his father first (Luke 9:61), genuine salvation is a forsaking all to follow Christ.

True Christ followers follow him in separation. I hear from so many of you about how your stand for truth and your refusal to bend and fellowship with apostates has cost you. When Jesus called Peter and Andrew “they forsook their nets, and followed him (Mark 1:16-18). They not only left it all behind, it stayed behind. The true believer is separate from the world and no longer follows the works of darkness.

We follow Christ in service. We are called to be a proclaimer of Christ, to be fishermen of men.

We follow Christ in suffering. Mark 8:34 says, ‘And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.’ To follow Christ means to suffer, and perhaps even die, for Him. That is why He also said, “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:38)

Therefore, I urge you brothers through the compassions of God to present your bodies as living, holy sacrifices, well pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service. And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may discern the will of God, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. (Colossians 1:24-26 ESV)

The way of escape

"To believe that He will preserve us is, indeed, a means of preservation. God will certainly preserve us, and make a way of escape for us out of the temptation, should we fall. We are to pray for what God has already promised. Our requests are to be regulated by His promises and commands. Faith embraces the promises and so finds relief." - John Owen

How to be free from bondage to our flesh and temptation

"If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation. Let this be one aspect of our daily intercession: 'God, preserve my soul, and keep my heart and all its ways so that I will not be entangled.' When this is true in our lives, a passing temptation will not overcome us. We will remain free while others lie in bondage." - John Owen

Meta

About me

My name is Mike Ratliff. I am a δοῦλος (slave) of the Κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν (Lord Jesus Christ.) I have been a Bible teacher since the late 1980's. I am currently learning Koine Greek, which I began in 1992 and will continue to do so until the Lord takes me home. I am Reformed in my theology because I recognize that God is Sovereign over all things. I write these posts as God directs. I am also part of the discernment team at Christian Research Network.

OTHERS MAY, YOU CANNOT

by G. D. Watson

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.

God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.

So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.

God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.